It’s finally here! People have been emailing me that they’re finding their copies of As Shadows Fade…so it’s time to open the spoiler thread.

Don’t post spoilers here on this post, please…but if you want to talk about the book, the series, etc., you can go here and talk about it to your heart’s content! I promise to stop by and try to answer any questions and comments.

This post, though, is for As Shadows Fade sightings–where did you see or buy it? I always like to hear  where and how people get their hands on the book, so indulge me and drop a post if you don’t mind.

A reminder that I have three book signings scheduled in March (all in Michigan, due to my inability to travel because of my broken leg)–in Brighton, Ann Arbor, and Lansing. You can get details on my website (far right column).

Hope to see some of you there!

And indulge me a little more, if you don’t mind…here are a couple of new reviews for ASF…I’m so glad people are enjoying the book!

RomanceNovel.tv

Desert Island Keepers Ladies

Thanks to Music Man doing the random selection, we have a winner for the chapter headings contest:

ASHLEY!

Congratulations! Please email me at books at colleengleason dot com and let me know where to send As Shadows Fade. I’ll do my best to get it in the mail by Monday.

As for the chapter headings that all of you listed…many of them are my own favorites! Some of them, as one commenter pointed out, could have more than one meaning. Often times, I would write the chapter and then go back days later to figure out the best chapter heading.

Some of my favorites, just for the humor, are:

In Which Maximilian Encounters Dust Bunnies (TRFA–when Max has to hide under a bed)

Miss Grantworth Becomes Frightfully Chilled at an Inappropriate Moment (TRFA–when Rockley is proposing)

In Which Miss Grantworth’s Bedchamber Sees Much Activity (TRFA–when several people are in and out of her room)

Of Smashed Toes, Chatty Drivers, and Inflation (RTN–when Vic and Sebastian are in the carriage and she is on her way to Italy, unaware that he will soon follow. The “inflation” refers to his “price” going up. Heh.)

In Which Mrs. Withers Has Double the Fun (RTN–when Vic is pretending to be Mrs. Withers and goes out with the Italian twins, Portiera and Placidia)

In Which Maximilian Considers Gardening (RTN–when Vic and Sarah Regalado discuss the possibility of Max growing roses for his fiancee)

There are others, of course, but those are some of my favorites, simply for fun.

Question, in particular for those of you who mentioned the “Taut String Snapping” chapter, but for anyone…did you know what was going to happen when you saw that chapter heading? Did you guess what it meant? Just curious.

Thanks for playing the Chapter Headings Contest!

And if anyone sees the new book out and about, do let me know. Have a great weekend!

Less than two weeks till the official release of As Shadows Fade! Yay!

I can’t tell you what a bittersweet time this is for me. Since I wrote the book almost a year ago, I’ve long said good-bye to Victoria and Co., although in the last few weeks I’ve revisited the book a couple times. Just because it’s everything I hoped it would be…I hope those of you who read it will feel the same way.

Anyway, I thought I’d post a few of the chapter headings from As Shadows Fade, just to give you a little tease/sneak peek. They don’t really give anything away…or do they??

Here are a few, in random order…

In Which Victoria Receives the Most Unpleasant of Surprises

In Which Our Heroine Dredges Up a Past Event, to the Dismay of Her Companion

Wherein Our Heroine Sets the Record Straight

The Temptation of Sebastian Vioget

In Which Sebastian Exercises Unusual Prudence

Wherein We Observe Venators in their Natural Habitat

Of Dreams and Sacrifice, and the Incurrence of a Debt

What? No titles with Max in them? Oh no! What can that mean?

You’ll just have to wait a couple more weeks to find out.

But in the mean time, I’m going to give away a signed copy of As Shadows Fade to a lucky commenter below.

To enter, simply list your favorite chapter heading(s) from another book in the series (they don’t have to be exact if you can’t remember, and if it’s not obvious, remind us what scene) and I’ll draw a random winner.

I will only count one entry per commenter–but feel free to make multiple comments or list multiple chapter headings.

I’ll draw a winner on Saturday sometime, so place your entry by Friday Midnight EST.

Have fun! I’ll be interested to see how many of my favorite chapter headings get listed.

So those of you who follow me on Twitter have gotten used to me doing a gas price check about once a week….so here we go. How much is a gallon of regular gas where you are?

I just saw it for $1.79 here in Michigan–and I know there are places not too far away that are even lower.

What about you? How much is it costing you for a gallon, and to fill your tank?
Doesn’t it make you wonder about the fact that all of a sudden, the prices have dropped almost 60% from what they were two months ago? Does this mean that when oil was going for $100, $120 a barrel, it was artificially inflated? Or is it simply that demand has decreased…hmmmm…more than 50%?

*scratches head* Somehow I don’t think demand has decreased that much. Have you been driving less? I haven’t. Not really.

Am I wrong to be smelling something ridiculously stinky?

I live in a county that leans very heavily in a particular direction politically. Let’s just say, pretty much everyone supports Party A.

While I consider myself an independent, in this election I am not supporting Party A or its candidates. Neither is Music Man.

Our neighbor to the right is a staunch supporter of Party A, and always puts signs in his yard expressing his support. We’ve never done the same…until this year. For this election.

We were the first household on our street to put up any political sign, and we put one up for Party B’s candidate.

The other two moms that wait at our bus stop also expressed strong support for Party B’s candidate–which was delightful to us, since we figured we were the only Party B supporters in our area. Apparently, that’s not the case.

So shortly after we put up our sign for Party B, the mom who lives two houses down from us–and on the corner of a fairly busy street–put up a sign for Party B.

Well, our staunch Party A neighbor couldn’t let that pass…so he added his own (expected) sign for Party A.

We joked that he must be feeling a little boxed in, with his Party A sign sandwiched between two Party B signs. We loved it!

At this point, those three signs: B, A, B, were the only signs on our very-Party-A Street in our very-Party-A county.

So the woman on the corner wanted another sign to put on the side of her yard that faces the busy road, and the second mom at our bus stop also wanted a sign for her yard (seven houses down).

Well, heh. Music Man and I went and got a bunch of Party B signs because we wanted people to know that there were Party B supporters in our neighborhood, and put them in the yards of the other bus stop mom (seven houses down) and two other people further down our street (whom we knew wanted them). We also put one on the busy-street-side of the bus stop mom’s house on the corner.

And we had one left over sign. So we stuck it in our yard, giving us two Party B signs.

Heh heh heh. This was on Tuesday, early afternoon.

Within two hours, our Party A neighbor had added a second Party A sign to his yard. When our kids got off the bus that day and saw that, they were laughing so hard about how he “copied” us.

Music Man and I found it rather funny too. We’re thinking about adding a third sign…just to see if he follows suit.

Then on Wednesday, two more Party A signs appeared in the same yard between our house and the bus stop-mom who lives seven houses away. Apparently two signs will be the norm for our street.

Unless we add a third sign. Heee!

Or, even…balloons? What do you think about that?

And check this out: Got a yard sign on your street? Head over here to YardVote.com and report it. This site is trying to tabulate yard sign sightings to see how it portrays (or doesn’t) the political climate in various neighborhoods. Cool, eh?